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A Shenandoah County attorney can still practice law while he appeals a state high court decision that would suspend his license for six months.
The Supreme Court of Virginia recently affirmed a ruling by a panel of circuit judges in Shenandoah County last summer that Bradley G. Pollack violated professional rules of conduct in 2020. But a six-month suspension of his license to practice law imposed by the lower court remains on hold while Pollack seeks a rehearing by the Supreme Court.
Pollack represents District 3 on the Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors and is one of eight people seeking the Republican Party nomination to run for the State Senate District 1 seat in a primary on June 20. Early voting started May 5.
The Virginia State Bar alleged in 2020 that Pollack committed violations of the Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct by failing to keep accurate records of three clients’ payments he accepted but did not earn and did not repay in a timely manner. A three-judge panel in Shenandoah County Circuit Court convened last year sided with the state bar, found Pollack committed the violations and imposed a six-month suspension on his license to practice law in Virginia.
The Supreme Court lifted its previously granted stay of the execution of the circuit court’s suspension but did not immediately impose the period of suspension. Instead, the Supreme Court sent the matter back to the circuit court with the instruction to enter an order for the suspension.
Pollack notes in an email to the Northern Virginia Daily on Tuesday that he has until July 5 to file a petition for a rehearing. The Supreme Court requires that Pollack file a notice with the court clerk within 10 days of the order or opinion of his intention to file the petition. Once filed, the clerk must withhold certification of the mandate until the deadline for filing the petition has expired.
In light of the Supreme Court’s decision, Pollack states in his email that he has since filed his notice of intent to apply for a rehearing.
“If I do not prevail in a rehearing, I don’t know when the suspension will finally be effective,” Pollack states. “It actually will not have much of an effect upon me as I have not been spending much time practicin(g) law.
“I’ve been spending time assisting with the sale of the Aileen plant outside of Edinburg, which I have an ownership interest in, for warehousing solar panels, fabricating solar panels, and glass fabrication,” Pollack states. “It will also give me more time to help SimulTV, which Mike Lindell invested $2 million in, and Dog the Bounty Hunter with business matters. And, of course, I will also continue to serve on the Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors until the end of the year.”
Asked if the court’s decision affects his bid for the Republican nomination in the primary, Pollack states the opinion “makes clear that the people of Frederick, Shenandoah, Warren, Clarke and Winchester need me representing them in the Senate of Virginia.”
Pollack responds directly to the Supreme Court opinion in his email.
“What the Supreme Court’s opinion doesn’t reveal is that the complaints by my three clients were all found to be baseless,” Pollack states. “It was only my informing the Bar that I had deposited their fee in the wrong account that has resulted in my six-month suspension. I was also punished because I didn’t return a portion that I admitted I had not earned during a period of time when my client refused to communicate with my attorney or me about settling the matter. But no client lost a dime, I earned every dollar I kept, and even needlessly gave refunds and gave up uncollected fees.”
Pollack goes on to argue that, according to the American Bar Association for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions, he should have received no more than an admonition.
“Sadly, this is another example of the Virginia State Bar’s long history of targeting only attorneys not employed by big law firms or not well-connected,” Pollack states.
Pollack’s appeal arises from an attorney-disciplinary proceeding against him that began in 2020. But Pollack also challenges the circuit court’s treatment and consideration of his prior disciplinary record. The Supreme Court reviewed Pollack’s five Virginia State Bar disciplinary actions dating to 1999.
Pollack demanded that a three-judge panel in Shenandoah County Circuit Court conduct further proceedings. The state bar filed a complaint in the court requesting that the court take jurisdiction and issue a rule against Pollack to show cause as to why he should not be disciplined. Judges Edward K. Stein, James A. Willett and Penney S. Azcarate, all of whom sit in other circuits, served on the panel appointed by then-Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court Donald W. Lemons to consider the matter. The panel in 2022 found that Pollack had violated rules concerning all three clients. The judges also found that Pollack waited almost two years after one of the former clients terminated Pollack’s representation in August 2020 to return the client’s money. The judges found that Pollack’s actions created a “harm or potential harm to his client, the (B)ar, and the public.”
The circuit court reconvened on July 1 and suspended Pollack’s license to practice law for six months. The court imposed conditions on Pollack should he seek to practice law after the six-month suspension expired. Judges ordered Pollack to retain a certified public accountant licensed in Virginia who shall issue a report to the Office of Bar Counsel every six months for one year certifying that Pollack’s trust account complies with the state rules of professional conduct.
The Supreme Court granted Pollack’s motion to stay the suspension during his appeal of the lower court’s ruling. Pollack has yet to serve any portion of the suspension.
Pollack states in his appeal that the circuit court panel committed errors that include attacks on his 2005 suspension. The state bar claims that the errors Pollack alleges the court made “are procedurally defaulted, waived, utterly without merit, or some combination of the three.”
